Review of Asset: Episode 4

April 14, 2014

Tom, Julia and Eric in a still from Episode 4.

This episode continues right where Eric left off with getting his ass kicked. The buyer, who is apparently knocked out cold, activates a fiery argument between Eric, Julia and Tom. Now up until this point Tom, the second analyst, just served as the grumpy voice of reason to Julia’s plan.

But now he’s upstaging both Julia and Eric. Tom gets some excellent character development here, proves he’s got balls and that he’s got some spy talents outside of crunching numbers. Tom is clearly an underrated character.

At first Tom was a small side character reacting to events around him, but now he’s activated, taking charge and driving the story.

Eric’s reactions initially tell us that he’s still out of his league. Beaten and bloody Eric makes a joke about laser watches, and a fantastic reference to Pete Winning and the Pirates. [Fun fact: one of Asset’s directors, Mike Donis, is also the star and creator of Pete Winning.]

Eric’s levity tells us he still thinks this mission is a game. Tom doesn’t appreciate the inexperienced sentiments. Spy mistake number three: Don’t pretend that you’re James Bond and therefore indestructible. While doing some fact checking about Tom I discovered a fan-interactive link. While exploring the various sites IAmtheAsset, the Offical Website, and the JTS.tv, I noticed a link to a Tumblr. Operation Cerberus. Why have there not been more links to this on their various social media sites? Facebook and Twitter should be pushing this at least once a week. Operation Cerberus acts like a surveillance report on Lazerev. Each new post relates to a detail in each episode. Of course the reports are from an objective standpoint, and only the audience knows significance behind these stand-alone facts. But let’s get back to Tom. Tom pushes Eric to do something that most James Bond movies gloss over: kill the enemy. Julia for sure takes a back seat in this episode because it’s really about Eric and Tom working against each other. Overall there’s not much more I can say without revealing more spoilers. One thing to say is that our buyer from the previous episode is central in upping the stakes for Eric. Although the guy didn’t get much screen time he was at the same standard of Eric and Tom. Of course with all the suspense throughout this short episode the soundtrack plays a key role. It’s great, and something I wanted to mention since Episode 1, but the music definetly earned a full mention here, as it plays perfectly with the timing and characters.